Clothes hanger



Jan. 4, 1966 s. E. SAMUELSSON CLOTHES HANGER Filed Dec United States Patent 3,227,334 CLOTHES HANGER Stig Erland Samuelsson, Porsevagen 20,

Falkenberg, Sweden Filed Dec. 4, 1963, Ser. No. 327,960 Claims priority, application Sweden, Dec. 5, 1962, 13,083/62 1 Claim. (Cl. 223-85) My invention has reference to an improvement in clothes hangers manufacture from plastics and provided with a suspension hook of metal with so called locking threads, i.e. annular grooves, at the lower end of the shank, the central portion of said hangers being provided with a vertical bore.

The main feature of the invention is to be seen therein that a sleeve of a somewhat softer plastic material than the hanger is insertable from below into said bore, said sleeve having a shoulder adapted in assembled position to abut against a shoulder at the lower end of the bore and further in that the suspension hook locking threads engage internally into the sleeve at the lower portion of the same, the dimensions being such that the hook can be rotated in said sleeve only by overcoming a considerable friction force, said sleeve extending through the bore up.

to the loop-shaped portion of the hook.

The invention gives considerable advantages. The clothes hanger proper can be manufactured from hard and stiff plastics and the sleeve in a somewhat softer plastic in such a way that the required friction is obtained between the sleeve and the clothes hangers on one side and the suspension hook on the other side. The hook will thus be hard to rotate in the sleeve and will not slide down in the same when one lifts the hanger proper.

It is of special importance that the hook not be easily rotatable in the sleeve or slidable axially in the same when the hanger is to be used in garment factories. In such factories the clothes together with the hangers are moved by hand in bundles, e.g. in the number of half a dozen at a time from a tube stand to another one and it would then be very disadvantageous if the hooks during this displacement be turned relatively to the hangers as in such a case it would be necessary to hang up the hangers one by one on the tube stand which would require a much longer time.

Because the sleeve extends through the bore up against the loop-shaped portion of the suspension hook, the clothing on the hanger is prevented to come in contact with the metal hook and to be stained by the same.

The invention will in the following be elucidated with reference to the accompanying drawing. In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a partly cut and partly in longitudinal section showing a clothes hanger according to the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the suspension hook according to FIG. 1.

The shown clothes hanger which is to be manufactured from hard plastics with a cross section having substantially the shape of an inverted U, comprises a central portion 1 shaped substantially as the arc of a circle, and from said central portion there extend in both directions branches 2 and 3 downwards and outwards. These branches are at their outer ends provided with downwards bent end portions 4 (only the left-hand one shown in FIG. 1) which have the shape of an arc of a circle so as to follow the shape of the clothing to be carried by the hanger. In the vicinity of the place where the branches 2, 3 continue in the downwards bent portions 4 they are at their upper borders provided with at least one transice verse notch 5, said notches adapted to be used at the hanging up of skirts with loops, ladies dresses without shoulder straps and the like.

The arc-shaped central portion 1 is at its summit portion provided with reinforcement ribs 7 and 8 extending between the side branches 6 of the hanger. Oneof said ribs 8 is provided with a vertical bore 9. The diameter of this bore 9 is preferably somewhat greater than the diameter of the button 11 at the upper loop-shaped end of the suspension hook 10. The bore 9 is at its lower end provided with means 12 acting as a shoulder. The lower end of the shank 13 of the hook is provided with so called locking threads 14, Le. annular grooves having surfaces 15 conically tapering towards the free end of the shank 13. A sleeve 16 of a soft plastic is insertable into the bore 9 from below. The sleeve 16 has at its lower end a shoulder 17 in the shape of a flange and extends through the bore 9 practically up to the loop-shaped portion of the suspension book 10.

The suspension hook 10 can, with its shank 13, be inserted from above into the sleeve 16 whereas the threads 14 internally engage at the lower end of said sleeve. The dimensions are chosen in such a way that the portion 18 of the sleeve 16, which in assembled position is situated in the interior of the bore 9, by the threads 14 is pressed out against the wall of the bore and here gives the friction required for preventing the suspension hook 10 with the sleeve 16 from sliding downwards in the bore when one lifts the clothes hanger but still permitting the hook to be turned in the sleeve.

The clothes hanger according to this invention is very simple to assemble. First the sleeve 16 is inserted from below into the bore 9 until the flange 17 abuts against the shoulder 12 at the lower end of the bore 9. The shank 13 of the suspension hook 10 is then inserted from above. The sleeve 16 is thereby expanded in such a way that it is clamped in the bore 9 of the hanger whilst causing suflicient friction between the suspension hook 10 and the sleeve 16 for preventing an axial displacement of the hook in the sleeve.

Another way of assembling is to insert first the suspension hook shank 13 into the sleeve 16, then to insert the suspension hook with the button 11 from below through the bore 9 and then to press the sleeve 16 through the here until the flange 17 abuts against the shoulder 12.

In such a case attention must be paid that the diameter of the bore 9 be sufiicient to allow the insertion of the loop-shaped portion of the suspension hook 10 through the bore.

The present invention has been described in detail above for purpose of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as defined in the appended claim. It is advisable to manufacture the sleeve 16 in different colors as the sleeves are visible above the clothing on the hanger, e.g. a blouse, so as to indicate that a clothing has the size 40, whilst other hangers may have blue sleeves 16 so as to indicate the size 42 and so on. The threads of the hook shank 13 may be shaped otherwise than shown. The dimensions of the shank 13 with the threads and the sleeve portion 18 as well as the bore 9 may also be chosen in such a way that the hook 10 with the sleeve 16 can be rotated in the bore 9 with a certain friction.

What I claim is:

In combination, a clothes hanger formed of a plastic material, the central portion of said hanger being provided with a vertical bore extending therethrough, a metal J loop-shaped suspension hook having its shank portion extending into said bore, the lower end of said shank portion benig provided with annular locking threads, and a sleeve formed of a plastic material somewhat softer than that of said hanger and positioned between said shank portion 1' and the bore wall, said sleeve having a shoulder abutting against the lower end of said bore wall and extending through said bore up to the loop-shaped portion of said suspension hook, the diameters of said annular locking threads and said sleeve being such that the sleeve is forced into tight engagement with the bore wall whereby vertical movement of the hook with respect to the hanger is prevented and whereby the hook can be rotated with respect to the hanger only by overcoming a considerable frictional force.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS- 1,743,493 1/ 1930 Sipe 248-71 2,912,149 11/1959 Stuard 22392 3,119,430 1/1964 Di Rico 15l7 FOREIGN PATENTS 13,760 6/ 1911 Great Britain. 256,3 80 8/ 1926 Great Britain. 101,926 5/1963 Norway. 170,349 2/1960 Sweden.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. H. KRIZMANICH, Examiner. 

